The fight to the death in Moscow’s inner
circles is really between the
Eurasianists and the so-called Atlantic
integrationists, a.k.a. the Western
fifth column. The crux of the battle is
arguably the Russian Central Bank and
the Finance Ministry – where some key
liberalcon monetarist players are
remote-controlled by the usual suspects,
the Masters of the Universe.

The same mechanism applies,
geopolitically, to any side, in any
latitude, which has linked its own fiat
money to Western central banks. The
Masters of the Universe always seek to
exercise hegemony by manipulating usury
and fiat money control.

So
why President Putin does not
fire the head of the Russian Central
Bank, Elvira Nabiulina, and a great deal
of his financial team - as they keep
buying U.S. bonds and propping up the
U.S. dollar instead of the ruble? What’s
really being aggressed here if not
Russian interests?

It’s clear by now which party profited
from the downing of the Russian Su-24 by
the Turkish Air Force – a graphic act of
war. The immediate result was the
suspension – which could lead to the
cancelling – of a crucial Pipelineistan
plank: Turkish Stream, which is a bęte
noire for the Masters of the Universe as
Turkey was about to become the key
alternative bypassing failed state
Ukraine for supplying natural gas to
southern Europe.

On
top if it the EU paid Ankara 3 billion
euros for its “indirect” services (the
official excuse is to allow Turkey to
control Syrian immigration to the EU.)
And EU sanctions to Russia were extended
for another six months.

A
fitting Russian response would be Moscow
defaulting on all debt to Western banks
in retaliation for the sanctions. An
extreme step would be blocking natural
gas shipments to the EU. If Russia even
floated one of these moves, not to
mention both, sanctions would be lifted
in a flash. So who’s really being
“aggressed” here?

Putin – and Russian intel – didn't see
it coming: Sultan Erdogan’s “stab
in the back.” So a case can be made
that Russian intel seriously
underestimated Erdogan’s massive
investment on regime change in Syria.

Whatever happens on the ground – much
more than in the Vienna-Geneva charade
now passing for a “peace process” – the
future of Syria bears two stark options;
a neo-Ottoman colony, but essentially
subordinated to the whims of the Masters
of the Universe; or a unitary sovereign
nation, not partitioned, with a strong
relationship to both Russia and Iran.

The question, though, remains; how does
Turkey get away with such a provocation,
with Russia imposing just a few
sanctions?

That Fuzzy Agenda

The missing link in the puzzle is
Israel. Contradictions became glaringly
obvious with the flattening of a
building in Jaramana, in Damascus, by
Israeli missiles, killing nine civilians
as well as Hezbollah-linked Samir Kuntar.

This could not have happened, in any
way, without Russian acquiescence –
considering Russian missile defense now
protects Syrian territory. So the
message is clear; Russia won’t interfere
with Israel’s priorities in
Syria/Lebanon – and vice-versa.

“Vice-versa” couldn’t be trickier. Tel
Aviv tacitly “supports” the Nusra Front,
a.k.a. al-Qaida in Syria, which even the
Obama administration finally has been
forced to admit is a terrorist outfit.

According to the Russian Defense
Ministry – as well as independent
Turkish investigations - most of the
stolen Syrian/Iraqi oil Islamic State
group scam ends up with the oil being
bought by Israel. Tel Aviv happens to be
the top buyer of the stolen-from-Baghdad
Iraqi Kurdistan oil with which stolen
Daesh oil is mixed.

And to top it off, Tel Aviv is a mortal
enemy of both Iran and Hezbollah – which
are essential nodes of the “4+1”
coalition (Russia, Syria, Iran, Iraq,
plus Hezbollah) fighting the Islamic
State group. Not to mention that Tel
Aviv – which favors a partitioned Syria
- wants to gobble up the energy-rich
Golan Heights for perpetuity.

So
how does Israel get away with it?

That War Party “Offer”

The bottom line of these three scenarios
– the Russian economy, Turkey and Israel
– is that a lethal, devastating response
is an easily available option for Putin
on all three. Yet he refuses to be
trapped by a war logic. Putin is the
ultimate adversary of “Russian
aggression.”

A
full confrontation with Turkey will
unite a disunited NATO. Now Russian
intel has connected the dots on how the
Masters of the Universe are trying to
use Ankara as bait to trap Moscow, as
they extensively used a now discarded,
irrelevant Kiev. Turkey’s top three
import nations happen to be Russia (10.4
percent), China (10.3 percent) and
Germany (9.2 percent); deep trouble in
Turkey would be a major headache for the
trio, much to the delight of the Empire
of Chaos.

A
confrontation with Israel will obviously
bring about the full force of the
Masters of the Universe. Not to mention
that the last thing Moscow needs is to
open a new front in the Levant. Here is
a meticulous attempt
by The Saker to clarify the
dangerous liaisons between Israel and
Russia.

The key front though is the Russian
economy; sooner or later there’s got to
be a purge of the Russian Central Bank
and the Finance Ministry, but Putin will
only act when he has surefire internal
support, and that’s far from given.

That follows a “tradition” Bill Blum,
for instance, has extensively
documented, as since the end of WWII
Washington attempted to overthrow more
than 50 governments – the absolute
majority full democracies; dropped bombs
on the civilian population of over 30
nations; attempted to assassinate over
50 foreign leaders; attempted to
suppress nationalist movements in 20
nations; interfered on countless
democratic elections; taught torture
through manuals and “advisers”; and the
list goes on.

Putin and the best and the brightest of
Russian intel very well know it.

And yet they do maintain a decent margin
of maneuver; establishing Russia as an
indispensable power all across Southwest
Asia (after smashing the fake
“Caliphate” from Raqqa to Mosul);
preventing any Masters of the Universe
encroachment on the Black Sea; and
putting up a real fight in the near
future in the Balkans.

The real advances will keep coming as
spin-offs of the Russia-China
diplomatic/strategic partnership – from
energy to trade to the military sphere.
And that projects us once again towards
the New Silk Roads – and the convergence
of the China-driven One Belt, One Road
with the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).

The bottom line is that in 2016 the
option will continue to be stark; it’s
either the hegemony of the War Party –
with the subtext of a
Washington “willfully” condoned
Salafi-jihadi “offer” to young,
disaffected Muslims; or the vision of a
full, prosperous
trade/commerce/communication network for
the whole of Eurasia. Ladies and
gentlemen, place your bets.

Pepe Escobar is an
independent geopolitical analyst. He
writes for RT, Sputnik and TomDispatch,
and is a frequent contributor to
websites and radio and TV shows ranging
from the U.S. to East Asia. He is the
former roving correspondent for Asia
Times Online, where he wrote the column
The Roving Eye from 2000 to 2014. Born
in Brazil, he's been a foreign
correspondent since 1985, and has lived
in London, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles,
Washington, Bangkok and Hong Kong. Even
before 9/11 he specialized in covering
the arc from the Middle East to Central
and East Asia, with an emphasis on Big
Power geopolitics and energy wars. He is
the author of "Globalistan" (2007), "Red
Zone Blues" (2007), "Obama does
Globalistan" (2009) and "Empire of
Chaos" (2014), all published by Nimble
Books. His latest book is "2030", also
by Nimble Books, out in December 2015.
He currently lives between Paris and
Bangkok. Follow him on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pepe.escobar.77377

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